London, Treuttel, Wurtz, Treuttel, jun. and Richter, 1831-1832. Folio (46.3 x 33.1 cm). Fine lithographed plate with original hand-colouring.

A female blackheaded pheasant ( Phasianus melanocephalus), a species newly described by the great British zoologist John Edward Gray (1800-1875). It is the rarest pheasant in the world, occurring only in a very small region in the Himalayas. It is also known as the western (horned) tragopan. Contrary to the norm among pheasants, the female in this species is arguably as beautiful as the male, if not more so. Drawn and lithographed by the British illustrator Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894), who became famous as a sculptor of life-size models of dinosaurs - for instance in the Crystal Palace Park in south London, and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Plate not numbered. According to Zimmer no text other than the caption was published. Sawyer, The dates of issue of J. E. Gray's "Illustrations of Indian Zoology"; Zimmer, pp. 272-273.